You know you’re in the right city when you can just randomly stumble across a place that’s this delicious.
How delicious, you ask? Extremely delicious.
So there I am, just walking around in Tokyo and minding my own business, and wham. Attacked by crazy deliciousness, completely out of nowhere.
One of those things that’s huge in Asia and virtually unheard of in the west is putting beans in desserts. It’s a little bit off-putting at first, but then you quickly realize it’s delicious and wonder why you haven’t spent your whole life eating beany sweets.
Hey, you know the pancakes that you grew up loving? Yeah, they’re trash. The Austrians have perfected the pancake; we all need to get with the program and follow their lead.
Cannolis aren’t exactly a Roman thing, but there was no possible way I was going to leave Italy without eating at least one. A quick “best cannoli in Rome” search led to a very conclusive answer: everyone seems to be in agreement that a Sicilian bakery called Ciuri Ciuri has the tastiest cannoli in the city.
In case you’re wondering, I bought this candy from a vending machine at a Spanish bus station in the year 2017. I literally did a double-take when I first saw it.
This wasn’t something that I thought would be particularly blog-worthy; just a quick (and unhealthy) breakfast thanks to a random recommendation on the internet. “Hey,” the internet told me, “the napolitana de chocolate at La Mallorquina is actually pretty good!” Okay, internet, I’ll give it a shot.
The bakery turned out to be in a super touristy part of town, so my expectations weren’t very high, to put it kindly.
Then I took a bite and my whole life changed.